Closest I got to a hobby is reading a shit ton of books. Highly recommend listening to an audiobook while you read a physical copy, cannot stress enough how much this helps me focus.

Hiking/backpacking (not exactly niche?)

1. Don’t buy a ton of stuff for day hikes. You need less than you think. If you carry enough for an overnight there is a good chance you’ll be so slowed down that you’ll end up staying overnight.
2. Carry the ten essentials. GPS’ run out of battery and you can end up in areas without satellite reception. Always have a compass and paper map and visualize your route before going if you are backpacking in deep. Be aware where roads and bailouts are relative to your route.
3. Occasionally look behind you to get an idea of what the route back will look like if you’ll be returning the same way.
4. If it doesn’t look like a trail stop, you need to backtrack to the last sure spot. Don’t plow ahead blindly thinking it will resolve itself.
5. Winter hiking means less daylight and more stuff (slower). Plan accordingly.
6. “Mountains generate their own weather”. Bring some light raingear and insulation even if it is warm at the trailhead. I’ve started in 80+ temps and gotten snow near summits.
7. Carry hiking poles. They are invaluable for things like stream crossings. They saved me from breaking a leg stepping down boulders once.
8. If the trail is blazed and you can’t see them look up and behind you for them, sometimes they are painted high up for snowpack.
9. Carry traction (ice creepers) if going up into the mountains in spring/fall. Early/late snow and ice is common. In winter bring crampons.
10. Always check the weather, especially for mountain hikes. Be ready to turn back or change your plans if the weather looks sketchy. Don’t get “summit fever” just because you made a special trip.
11. If you are shopping for gear spend the most on boots. They will be the major deciding factor in how comfortable your hiking is. Make sure to break them in before a trip. I’ve been on a multiday mountain trip where a guy had brand new boots and his feet were bleeding by day 3.
12. If winter hiking and there is a snow pack wear gaiters (or built in ones). Snow in boots = cold/wet feet = frostbite. I’ve seen too many people have to turn around because their boots were getting packed with snow and they were suffering.

One of the biggest things that most amateur filmmakers or video makers make is not getting sufficient tone.

Before shooting, record a fairly long stretch of just the ambient sound in the area where you’re filming so that when you are editing, it can be laid under the audio tracks and help to smooth out the jumps in audio from different clips.

a percolator can be used as a Soxhlet extractor

I made some spicy ginger extract.

also be really careful if you’re going to be an idiot like me and use a flammable solvent like grain alcohol.

Hobby: Chess

Tips: Ill state a few mistakes here that I see beginners do a lot (mistakes that I also made as a beginner and had to learn to not do and why not to do them).

1. Don’t give check just because you can give check. Beginners love to just check you with zero follow up. Its like it creates a sense of purpose for their moves but without a proper follow up it is a waste of a move.

2. Consider the fact that I can make moves and formulate my own plans. Half the game is what you play and the other half is what your opponent plays. If you only consider your moves/plans, I, and any chess player beyond a beginner, will easily beat you.

3. Every move has a purpose. If you make a move and I ask you why you made that move and you cannot provide a reasonable reason, then you either wasted a move or got lucky and just happened to guess a good move.

4. Dont try to learn opening theory as a beginner. You should learn the three main opening principiles (develop you pieces, get your king to safety, and control the center of the board) and some very common lines to play but after that you should move on to the middle game and end game. Revisit opening theory once you understand the game at a deeper level. It will make it easier for you.

5. You paid money and spent time travelling to tournament. You have over an hour on the clock and you oppenent just made a move. Stop and think for a moment. Dont rush your moves and try to play instantly all the time. You waste time, money, and the day since you played like shit (whats the point?).

6. (Last) Do NOT have an ego or underestimate your opponent. Especially of they are a little kid. There are two types of kid chess players: the ones who learned how to play 5 minutes ago and the ones that humble you. Very little in between there. There are two types of (non-kid) chess players: those who think a 10yr old kid by default sucks at chess, and those who have played enough kids to realize what the fuck is up. It is funny to watch the former turn into the ladder. Those kids at tournaments are such wild cards

Why wouldn’t you buy a sub from a speaker company? Here’s one for audiophiles: if you want real good sound look at studio equipment rather than expensive hifi stuff. A high end studio interface plus a pair of full range studio monitors will sound more accurate than any hifi setup.

And another one: listening experience is 95% acoustics. Don’t bother with speakers above say 2k if you’re not willing to invest money and space into proper acoustic treatment.

Protection goggles when removing supports from your resin 3D prints. ALWAYS

Buying a cheap 2nd hand E-bike (right now) means the same as buying any other broken bike: You need to know how to switch a chain and adjust brakes. The electronics themselves however are surprisingly resilient.

If you have to use more than 3 adapters, stop and reevaluate what you’re doing.

As someone who enjoys growing and studying about many many different kinds of carnivorous plants, don’t worry too much about feeding them, instead make sure you get them enough lighting and good water supply through good quality substrate (not something that’s been decomposing for 3+ years and turning into mulch) with adequate aeration. The need for metabolic energy always comes first before nutrition (which is what these plants get from eating meat), same concept to how not having access to oxygen to breath is a lot more dangerous to a human or animal than being malnourished.

Happy growing! :D

Hobbyist race car builder/mechanic, sometimes you need cheap tools to break, bend, grind or cut to do one job.

I have a spanner that has been lovingly butchered to remove one sensor on a steering rack on one model of car. Its a common failure point and replacing it either means custom specialty tool or complete steering rack removal and wheel allignment.

You know when you’re walking around town at night and see those neon shop signs saying they’re open? Well *warm smiles*, that’s me.

If I see a shop without a neon sign, I happily walk in and offer to sell them one for a £1000. If they refuse, I threaten to smash in their windows and burn down the shop with them in it. I then leave with a happy customer and add a little more neon magic into the world.

You’re welcome, world.

Boardgames

Its easier to make gamers into friends than it is to make friends into gamers

If you have to count beats in your head, you’re already failing as a DJ. Knowing when to drop the next tune should come naturally.

Read some music theory if you have to, and definitely spend time listening more closely to your tunes. Try to think about how your music is structured as you’re listening to it. Identify the intro, chorus, verses, bridge(s), etc.

With enough critical listening (and practice on the decks), you’ll no longer have to count beats to know where you are in the song and when to start the mix. It’ll eventually become second nature for you.

There’s two types of costume contests, cosplay contests that break things down by experience, and random Halloween contests that are basically reenactments of popularity contests in high school.

The former you’re gonna enter as a journeyman unless you built something so outrageous they gotta up the difficulty level. Make sure you have a TON of documentation and pics and explanations on how you did things. The judges are gonna wanna know how hard you worked on things and the amount of detail you put into it. If you spent 8 hours on the gold colored filigree on your bracers you damn well better mention it Typically unless you’re doing best performance, you get three poses and you’re off the stage. By the time you hit the stage the judges typically made their decisions so play to the crowd and do what looks good on film. If you are going for best performance, don’t feel pressured to use your full five minutes, or however long they give. Waaay to many people overstay their welcome, you wanna leave the people wanting more, not less. Hit your points, your high note, and if you’re still only halfway through your time, whatever. You’re not disqualified if you don’t use your time completely, and people will greatly appreciate someone moving the schedule faster than usual.

For the latter Halloween costume contests, effort means NOTHING. You could’ve thrown the damn thing together in five minutes and win, and if you spend 16 hours on it it will not improve your chances. The venue is looking for costumes that look great on the social media, is a character they love, makes them laugh, blows their mind, causes the venue to cheer, and (this is the most important bit) appears in front of whoever the hell is judging the competition. It’s 1 to 3 people who pick on the previously mentioned criteria. Each judge is gonna be a little different. Some judges listen to the crowd, some judges love horror films so every slasher villain goes on stage, some judges do NOT know what the hell a star wars is. The one thing that all judges have in common though, is that they exist in a 3 dimensional space and only have eyes in front of their head. If you’re a wall flower that doesn’t interact with people, you will not win the contest unless the judge is also sharing your wall. Build a dance circle, tip the bartender to figure out who’s judging tonight (they may or may not know) but if you wanna win, physics dictates that you appear in front of a judge as they wander the venue. That is more important than your costume.